Set focus to infinity, switch to Manual Focus and make sure IS is switched off as well. Hit your shutter and wait for a strike. If it's a rather stormy night, this is where the cloth comes in - after capturing a couple of strikes, I'll carefully cover the lens to stop anymore light coming into it and wait until the shutter closes.

The above technique also works well for capturing fireworks where you don't want too many fireworks in the shot at one time.

If you want to take impressive lightning photos then you should use a tripod and use remote shutter in order to take shots. You should set the shutter speed and aperture properly. Most importantly, you should frame the picture where most of the light occurs.

As I know you should have a lightning trigger for taking shots. I'm into lightning photography and i read a review on gizmag about that device called Nero Trigger. It can be very helpful for images you want to capture. You should check it out.

ou do not want the camera searching for focus when trying to take pictures of lightning - so you need to set it to infinity first. Any slightly out of focus shots of lightning are very noticeable with digital.